The Prime Minister has dismissed claims of sexism over his behaviour at Prime Minister’s Question Time this week. David Cameron told shadow chief secretary to the treasury Angela Eagle to “calm down” during the session.

Cameron claims that his remarks were just a joke. “I don’t know what it is about some people on the left. It seems that when they put the socialism in, they take the sense of humour out,” he told Conservative party members at an event in north Wales.

Commentators from across the political spectrum described the Prime Minster’s attitude as “inappropriate” and “patronising”. However, he has been defended by actor Michael Winner, who uses the phrase in an insurance advert, and Daily Mail columnist Richard Littlejohn, who said that Eagle “may be a say-it-loud-I’m-out-and-I’m-proud lesbian, but she doesn’t seem to get much fun out of life.”

The disputed comment came as Eagle corrected Cameron on a fact during Prime Minister’s Question Time. The Prime Minister wrongly claimed that GP and former Labour MP Howard Stoate had been defeated by a Conservative candidate during the last general election, when Stoate had actually retired from the position.

“Calm down, dear, calm down. Calm down and listen to the doctor,” Cameron told Eagle.

“David Cameron’s contemptuous response to Angela Eagle MP at Prime Minister’s Questions today shows his patronising and outdated attitude to women. Women in Britain in the 21st century do not expect to be told to ‘calm down, dear’ by their Prime Minister,” said deputy Labour leader Harriet Harman.

Eagle first received national attention in 1997, when she became the country’s first out lesbian Member of Parliament.

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